Raising chickens is a full-time job, these animals need attention and care in order for them to grow well.
There are a lot of products on the market that help chickens in a variety of ways, if you’re looking to see how sulfur dust can be used on chickens then read on.
Using sulfur dust on your chickens is a great way to get rid of lice, mites, and other parasites. If used, the parasites will be almost gone after 3 weeks of use of the dust
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Sulfur dust for chickens
The number one reason for the use of sulfur dust by farmers on chickens is to keep mites and lice away.
The most common type of lice that can attack chickens is brown lice. Brown lice aren’t always necessarily brown, they can be yellow, white, or black, but they are simply called brown lice.
Regardless of what color they are, they can cause problems in your birds.
If lice infect your bird, your bird can develop feather loss, develop bacterial infections on the skin, can become irritated, will become itchy, will have a drop in egg production, slow growth will happen in younger birds, and the birds can develop anemia and have pale wattles or combs.
One way to get rid of lice is to have the birds take a dust bath, adding sulfur to this dust bath will boost the dust baths’ ability to get rid of the lice or mites on the bird.
Another upside of using sulfur dust for your chickens is that it is inexpensive, it can get rid of a number of parasites, it has low toxicity, and this dust can be sprayed or dusted on your bird.
If you use sulfur powder on your birds, the number of lice on your birds will decrease within a week, you can expect the lice to be almost completely eliminated within three weeks.
How does sulfur kill mites:
Sulfur is quite powerful as it kills parasites without harming chickens.
It destroys the normal energy-producing bodily functions of the parasites, killing them on contact, while being non-toxic to chickens unless ingested.
How to use sulfur for chickens:
In dust baths:
You can create a dust bath for your chickens by supplying a large pan or container of sand for them to bathe in.
You can use builders’ sand for the dust bath, washed sand is best, (you can find both at hardware stores or at your local gravel business) make sure that the sand you choose to use is not too fine that it gets into the bird’s lungs.
When adding sand and sulfur dust to the bird’s dust bath, keep a 75 sand to 25 sulfur dust ratio at a minimum. This will give you the best result
The sand will get rid of the oils, dust, and debris that the parasites eat while on the bird. The dust will also force the parasites to detach from the bird’s skin.
Dusting birds:
You can also dust the birds directly, this method does not dilute the sulfur dust. To do this, grab your bird and apply the sulfur dust on them making sure that the sulfur dust reaches the bird’s skin.
You can also place the bird in a garbage bag, (leave the bird’s head outside the bag) add some sulfur dust into the bag, hold the opening of the bag firmly at the chicken’s neck (not too tightly), and then shake the bag with the chicken in it.
Dust the birds on a regular basis to keep the parasites away
Bags of sulfur powder:
If you want a long-term solution, you can create and leave small gauze bags full of sulfur powder in the chicken coop, at coop doorways, in nest boxes, and close to bird feeders.
The birds will get some of the powder on themselves as they brush against these small sulfur gauze bags
Even using small sulfur gauze bags to get rid of parasites on your chickens will do a lot to reduce the number of parasites on the birds.
Note when buying sulfur:
When buying sulfur dust for chickens, make sure you read the ingredients before you buy.
The sulfur that you use on your birds needs to be at least 99.5% sulfur, the rest of the product is usually foreign material.
If you use a product that has many other materials in it, then the efficacy of the product will be reduced
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Can A Bird’s Broken Wing Heal By Itself?, How Do Birds Break Their Wings, Can A Birds Broken Wing Heal On Its Own, How To Tell If A Bird Has A Broken Wing